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New Releases January 10—January 16 and Readers Choice Contest

The second full week of January brings us almost twenty more new releases for you to enjoy and quite possible add to your TBR pile. I think that you will find some very interesting books on the list this week.

What do you want to read this week? As always, leave a comment telling me the book you’d most like to win, and maybe random.org will make your wishes come true. Your choice of print or digital unless otherwise stated. International? Of course! As long as Book Depository delivers to your country, please enter. If you’d prefer the first book in a series listed here, that’s okay, too.

A Thing of Beauty, by Lisa Samson, (January 13, Thomas Nelson)
Former child star Fiona Hume deserted the movie biz a decade ago, right after she left rehab. She landed in Baltimore, bought a dilapidated old mansion downtown, and hatched dreams of restoring it into a masterpiece. She would disappear from public view and live an artist’s life. Ten years later, she’s thirty-two years old and still recognizable, but Fiona’s money has finally run out. In her desperation she’s willing to do almost anything for money. She comes to rent out the maid’s quarters to a local blacksmith named Josia Yeu. Josia is everything Fiona isn’t: gregarious, peaceful, in control without controlling, in short, happy. As the light from the maid’s quarters begins to permeate the dank rooms of Fiona’s world, something else begins to transform as well, something inside Fiona. Something even she can see is beautiful.

Amnesia, by Peter Carey, (January 13, Knopf)
When Gaby Baillieux releases the Angel Worm into Australia’s prison computer system, hundreds of asylum-seekers walk free. Because the Americans run the prisons, the doors of some five thousand jails in the United States also open. Is this a mistake, or a declaration of cyber war? And does it have anything to do with the largely forgotten Battle of Brisbane between American and Australian forces in 1942? Or with the CIA-influenced coup in Australia in 1975? Felix Moore, known to himself as “our sole remaining left-wing journalist,” is determined to write Gaby’s biography in order to find the answers, to save her, his own career, and, perhaps, his country. But how to get Gaby, on the run, scared, confused, and angry, to cooperate? (U.S. Release)

Near Enemy (Spademan #2), by Adam Sternbergh, (January 13, Crown)
It’s a year after Shovel Ready. Persephone is ensconced with her newborn upstate; Simon the Magician is struggling to keep control of Harrow’s evangelical empire; and Spademan has accepted a seemingly routine job: to snuff out a no-good bed-hopper named Lesser. Lesser has been causing headaches all over the limnosphere, racking up enemies left and right. Lesser comes back from the dream with a wild claim: that the terrorists have found a way to infiltrate the limnosphere, to hijack the luxury virtual escape from the inside. They’re doing it from somewhere in New York. Spademan is not used to having enemies, but he tries to stay vigilant about the dangers that lurk right under our noses. He’s about to find out just how close these new enemies are, and how dangerous they can be.

Saint Odd (Odd Thomas #7), by Dean Koontz, (January 13, Bantam)
Two years after the cataclysmic events that sent him journeying into mystery, Odd Thomas, the intrepid fry cook who sees the dead and tries to help them, has traveled full circle, back to his beloved hometown of Pico Mundo and the people he loves. He has come to save them, and perhaps humanity, from the full flowering of evil it is his destiny to confront, as he draws ever closer to the truth of the world and his place in it. Stronger, wiser than he started, and with the help of the friends he has made along the way, Odd prepares to confront the terrible forces arrayed against him and possibly to journey still farther, to his long-awaited reunion with his lost love, Stormy Llewellyn.

The Dagger’s Path (The Forsaken Lands #2), by Glenda Larke, (January 13, Orbit)
It should have been easy, return the stolen feather and restore Ardhi back to his rightful place. But when Saker, Ardhi, Sorrel, and Piper arrive to find the island in chaos, returning just the one feather will not help, not when the other three have mysteriously disappeared as well. As Saker and Ardhi work to mend the distrust caused by Ardhi’s betrayal and attempt to retrieve the other feathers, they slowly find a sort of peace with the islanders. That is, until Saker realizes they unintentionally led the Spice traders straight to the sacred island they were hoping to protect. Now Saker must fight with both the Va witchery and Chenderawasi magic to defend everything that Ardhi holds dear. But Saker’s powers are very new, and their enemies have them surrounded.

The Darkest Part of the Forest, by Holly Black, (January 13, Little, Brown BYR)
Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once. At the center of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. It rests right on the ground and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives. Hazel and Ben were both in love with him as children. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking. Until one day, he does. As the world turns upside down, Hazel tries to remember her years pretending to be a knight. But swept up in new love, shifting loyalties, and the fresh sting of betrayal, will it be enough?

The Deep, by Nick Cutter, (January 13, Gallery)
A strange plague called the ’Gets is decimating humanity on a global scale. It causes people to forget, small things at first, then the not-so-small things. Then their bodies forget how to function involuntarily. Far below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, deep in the Marianas Trench, an heretofore unknown substance hailed as “ambrosia” has been discovered, a universal healer, from initial reports. In order to study this phenomenon, a special research lab, the Trieste, has been built eight miles under the sea’s surface. But now the station is incommunicado, and it’s up to a brave few to descend through the lightless fathoms in hopes of unraveling the mysteries lurking at those crushing depths, and perhaps to encounter an evil blacker than anything one could possibly imagine.

The Just City (Thessaly #1), by Jo Walton, (January 13, Tor)
Created as an experiment by the goddess Pallas Athene, the Just City is a planned community, populated by children and adult teachers from all eras of history, along with some handy robots from the far human future. The student Simmea, is a brilliant child, eager for knowledge, ready to be her best self. The teacher Maia was once Ethel, who prayed to Pallas Athene during a trip to Rome, and, found herself in the Just City with Athene standing before her. Apollo, stunned by the realization that there are things mortals understand better than he does, has arranged to live a human life, and has come to the City as one of the children. A few years in, Sokrates arrives, the same Sokrates recorded by Plato himself, to ask all the troublesome questions you would expect.

The Last American Vampire, by Seth Grahame-Smith, (January 13, Grand Central)
In Reconstruction-era America, vampire Henry Sturges is searching for renewed purpose in the wake of his friend Abraham Lincoln’s shocking death. It will be an expansive journey that will first send him to England for an unexpected encounter with Jack the Ripper, then to New York City for the birth of a new American century, the dawn of the electric era of Tesla and Edison, and the blazing disaster of the 1937 Hindenburg crash. Along the way, Henry goes on the road in a Kerouac-influenced trip of vampire history through Russia’s October Revolution, the First and Second World Wars, and the JFK assassination.

The Magician’s Lie, by Greer Macallister, (January 13, Sourcebooks Landmark)
The Amazing Arden is the most famous female illusionist of her day, renowned for her notorious trick of sawing a man in half on stage. One night in Waterloo, Iowa, with young policeman Virgil Holt watching from the audience, she swaps her trademark saw for a fire ax. Is it a new version of the illusion, or an all-too-real murder? When Arden’s husband is found lifeless beneath the stage later that night, the answer seems clear. When Virgil happens upon the fleeing magician and takes her into custody, she has a very different story to tell. Arden is far from powerless, and what she reveals is as unbelievable as it is spellbinding. Virgil must decide whether to turn Arden in or set her free, and it will take all he has to see through the smoke and mirrors.

The Providence of Fire (Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne #2), by Brian Staveley, (January 13, Tor)
The conspiracy to destroy the ruling family of the Annurian Empire is far from over. Adare flees the Dawn Palace in search of allies to challenge the coup against her family. When she is believed to be touched by Intarra, patron goddess of the empire, the people rally to help her retake the capital city. Adare’s brother Valyn, renegade member of the empire’s most elite fighting force, has allied with the invading nomads. The terrible choices each of them has made may make war between them inevitable. Between Valyn and Adare is their brother Kaden, rightful heir to the Unhewn Throne, who has infiltrated the Annurian capital with the help of two strange companions. The knowledge they possess of the secret history that shapes these events could save Annur or destroy it.

The Whispering Swarm (Sanctuary of the White Friars #1), by Michael Moorcock, (January 13, Tor)
Back in the Thirteenth Century, King Henry III granted a plot of land in the heart of London to an order of Friars known as the Carmelites. They entered into a compact with God to guard a holy object. This sanctuary became a refuge for many of ill-repute, as the Friars cast no judgment and took in all who were in search of solace. Known as Alsatia, it did not suffer like the rest of the world. Within its walls lies a secret to existence, one that has been kept since the dawn of time, a bevy of creation, where reality and romance, life and death, imaginary and real share the same world. One young man’s entrance into this realm sends a shockwave of chaos through time. What lies at the center of this sacred realm is threatened for the first time in human existence. (U.S. Release)

Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea, by Adam Roberts, (January 13, St. Martin’s Griffin)
It is 1958 and the France’s first nuclear submarine, Plongeur. leaves port for the first of its sea trials. On board, one of the Navy’s most experienced captains and a tiny skeleton crew of sailors, engineers and scientists. The Plongeur makes her first dive and goes down, and down and down. The submarine plummets to a depth where the pressure will crush her hull, killing everyone on board, and beyond. The pressure builds, the hull protests, the crew prepare for death, the boat reaches the bottom of the sea and finds nothing. Her final dive continues, the pressure begins to relent, but the depth gauge is useless. They have gone down hundreds of miles, thousands. The crew succumbs to madness, betrayal, religious mania and murder. Has the Plongeur left the limits of our world and gone elsewhere? (U.S. Release)

Unbreakable, by W.C. Bauers, (January 13, Tor)
The colonists of the planet Montana are accustomed to being ignored. Situated in the buffer zone between two rival human empires, their world is remote. As a provisional member of the Republic of Aligned Worlds, Montana merits little consideration. When pirate raids threaten to destabilize the region, the RAW deploys its mechanized armored infantry. Leading the assault is Marine Corps Lieutenant and Montanan expatriate Promise Paen. Promise was driven to join the Marines after her father was killed by such a raid. The RAW’s most bitter rival, the Lusitanian Empire, has been watching events unfold in the Montana system. Their forces have been awaiting the right moment to gain a beachhead in Republic territory, and with Promise’s Marines decimated, they believe the time to strike is now.

Unmade (Entangled #2), by Amy Rose Capetta, (January 13, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt BYR)
Cadence is in a race against time and space to save her family and friends from the Unmakers, who are tracking the last vestiges of humanity across the cosmos. As the epic battle begins, Cade learns that letting people in also means letting them go. The universe spins out of control and Cade alone must face the music.

When, by Victoria Laurie, (January 13, Disney-Hyperion)
Maddie Fynn is a shy high school junior, cursed with an eerie intuitive ability: she sees a series of unique digits hovering above the foreheads of each person she encounters. It takes her father’s premature death for Maddie and her family to realize that these mysterious digits are actually death dates. Maddie identifies the quickly approaching death date of one client’s young son, but because her ability only allows her to see the when and not the how, she’s unable to offer any more insight. When the boy goes missing on that exact date, law enforcement turns to Maddie. More young people disappear and are later found murdered. Maddie’s whole existence is about to be turned upside down. Can she right things before it’s too late?

Wild Cards IV: Aces Abroad (Wild Cards #4), by George R.R. Martin, (January 13, Tor)
Forty years after the Wild Card Virus’s release, the World Health Organization decides it’s time to take a delegation of Aces, Jokers, politicians, and journalists on a fact-finding mission. Leading the team is Gregg Hartmann, a senator with presidential aspirations and a dangerous ace up his sleeve. From the jungles of Haiti and Peru to the tumultuous political climate of Egypt, from a monastery in Japan to the streets of the most glamorous cities of Europe, the Wild Cards are in for an eye-opening trip. Those possessing the most extreme mutations are treated with a contempt that’s all too familiar to the delegates from Jokertown. New alliances will be formed, new enemies will be made, and some actions will fulfill centuries-old prophecies that make ripples throughout the future of the Wild Cards universe.

And the Burned Moths Remain: A Tor.Com Original, by Benjanun Sirduangkaew, (January 14, Tor)
The shape of treason is a trunk of thorns, and Jingfei climbs knowing forgiveness waits at the zenith. But for the traitorous Record of Tiansong, who let their planet burn under the guns of the Hegemony, a second treason may be the only escape from their eternal prison. (ebook only)

The small print: This contest is international to any place Book Depository ships. Contests end at midnight CDT U.S. on Saturday, and winners will be announced on Sunday’s blog. It’s the responsibility of the winner to contact me with their mailing info.